fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

William Hill, known professionally as Billie Ritchie (5 September 1874 – 6 July 1921), was a Scottish comedian who first gained transatlantic fame as a performer for British music hall producer Fred Karno — thus, a full decade before Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin took a similar career path. Ritchie is best recalled today for the silent comedy shorts he made between 1914 and 1920 for director/producer Henry Lehrman's L-KO Kompany and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit.

Billie Ritchie
Born	William Hill[1] (1874-09-05)5 September 1874 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	6 July 1921(1921-07-06) (aged 46) Los Angeles, California, US
Nationality	Scottish
Spouse	Winifred Frances Kirby
Children	1

Biography

Variations on Ritchie's "tramp" and "drunk" personae – which Ritchie claimed he had developed before and during his Karno years – were introduced to film audiences by Charlie Chaplin in such shorts as the Lehrman-directed Kid Auto Races at Venice (7 February 1914) and Mabel's Strange Predicament (9 February 1914).

Ritchie, who, due to a series of on-set injuries, spent his final years relatively inactive, succumbed to stomach cancer in the summer of 1921.[2] Winifred Frances, the comedian's widow, and one-time stage partner, wound up in the employ of Charlie Chaplin as a wardrobe mistress, showing there was no animosity between the two performers.[3] Wyn Ritchie, their daughter, was also a performer, and, in private life, the wife (for 55 years) of songwriter Ray Evans.

In popular culture

In 1918 Dutch illustrator David Bueno de Mesquita created a comic book about Ritchie named Billie Ritchie en Zijn Ezel (Billie Ritchie and his Donkey). This was the first celebrity comic in Dutch history.[4]

Notes

References

• Massa, Steve (30 April 2013). Lame Brains and Lunatics: The Good, The Bad, And The Forgotten of Silent Comedy (pp. 55-68). BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1593932688.

External links

• Billie Ritchie at IMDb
• Billie Ritchie at Find a Grave
• Winifred Monroe Ritchie at IMDb
• Wyn Ritchie Evans at IMDb
• Wyn Ritchie at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Ray and Wyn Ritchie Evans Foundation Official Website
• Wyn Ritchie Evans Papers- University of Pennsylvania Archived 9 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine

---